The descendants of Joseph Lyman (1767-1847) flourished in nineteenth century Northampton, Mass., achieving social prominence, financial success, and a degree of intellectual acclaim. Having settled in Northampton before 1654, just a generation removed from emigration, the Lymans featured prominently in the development of the Connecticut River Valley. A Yale-educated clerk of the Hampshire County courts, Joseph’s descendants included sons Joseph Lyman (an engineer and antislavery man) and Samuel Fowler Lyman (a jurist), and three Harvard-educated grandsons, Benjamin Smith Lyman (a geologist and traveler in Meiji-era Japan) and brothers Joseph and Frank Lyman (both trained in the natural sciences).

Consisting of the scattered correspondence and photographic record of three generations of an intellectually adventurous Northampton family, the Lyman collection explores the ebb and flow of family relations, collegiate education, and educational travel in Europe during the mid-nineteenth century, with important content on antislavery and the Free State movement in Kansas. Although the family’s tendency to reuse names (repeatedly) presents a challenge in distinguishing the various recipients, the focal points of the collection include the geologist Benjamin Smith Lyman, his uncle Joseph (1812-1871), cousins Joseph (1851-1883) and Frank, and Frank’s son Frank Lyman, Jr. Antislavery is a major theme in the letters of Samuel F. Lyman to his son Benjamin, and in the letterbook of the Kansas Land Trust, an affiliate of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, of which the elder Joseph was Treasurer.

Background on Lyman Family

The descendants of Joseph Lyman (1767-1847) flourished in nineteenth century Northampton, Mass., achieving social prominence, financial success, and a degree of intellectual acclaim. Having settled in Northampton before 1654, just a generation removed from emigration, the Lymans featured prominently in the development of the Connecticut River Valley, and by the Revolutionary generation of which Joseph was part, they had become both prolific and prosperous, enjoying strong connections with learned and commercial circles from Boston to New Haven and New York. Having studied at Yale (1783) and read law, Joseph rose to become a highly respected member of the bar in the Valley, first as a Clerk of Courts and later as Judge of Common Pleas and Probate, as well as High Sheriff.

Joseph’s love of learning proved a longer lasting legacy than his contributions to the law, and he littered the pages of Harvard’s record of graduates with the names of his sons and grandsons. A son by his first marriage, Samuel Fowler Lyman (Harvard 1818), followed Joseph into the legal profession, becoming the long-time Register and Judge of Probate in Hampshire County. Another son by a second marriage, Joseph (1812-1871; Harvard 1830), shared his half-brother’s antislavery sentiments, but abandoned his pursuit of the law in favor of engineering and investment in railroads. A third son, Edward H.R. Lyman, entered into a mercantile house while still in his teens, becoming a partner in the prominent New York firm of A. A. Low & Brother, after marriage into the Low family. Not to be outdone by their brothers, Joseph’s daughters also enjoyed the privilege of connection: Susan Inches Lyman married the prominent geologist Joseph Peter Lesley, an officer of the American Philosophical Society and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, while the youngest Lyman child, Catherine Robbins Lyman, married Warren Delano, grandfather of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Succeeding generation of Lymans only deepened the Harvard connections and inquiring spirit. The more prominent among them was Samuel’s son Benjamin Smith Lyman (Harvard 1855), who became a noted mining engineer and student of Japan, while two of Edward’s sons also shared ties to Harvard and the sciences: Joseph (1851-1883) graduated with a degree in the natural sciences in 1873 before joining his father and grandfather as a partner in Low & Bros., while Frank (Harvard 1874), built on his Harvard foundation to pursue additional studies in the natural sciences as a post-graduate in mining-engineering at MIT, followed by a master’s degree at Columbia School of Mines (1878) and still more study in Germany and at the Ecole des Mines in Paris. Joseph died in 1883, just 31 years old, while Frank ultimately became President of the Brooklyn Gas Light Co.

Contents of Collection

Consisting of the scattered correspondence and photographic record of three generations of an intellectually adventurous Northampton family, the Lyman collection explores the ebb and flow of family relations, collegiate education, and educational travel in Europe during the mid-nineteenth century, with important content on antislavery and the Free State movement in Kansas. Although the family’s tendency to reuse names (repeatedly) presents a challenge in distinguishing the various recipients, the focal points of the collection include the geologist Benjamin Smith Lyman, his uncle Joseph (1812-1871), cousins Joseph (1851-1883) and Frank, and Frank’s son Frank Lyman, Jr.

The collection is particularly rich in the period 1850-1880 and includes a long series of letters written by Joseph (1851-1883) during his post-graduate tour of Germany and France and family letters written from both Jamaica Plain and Northampton. Perhaps most significant is an important series of nearly 800 letters to Joseph Lyman (1812-1871) while he served as Treasurer of the Kansas Land Trust, an affiliate of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, regarding investments in “surplus” Delaware Indian lands in Kansas for antislavery settlers in 1856-1857. Although the majority of the letters is comprised of simple inquiries on lands and financial arrangements, many also make reference to the political struggle over slavery in the territory, the founding of Quindaro as an antislavery town, and related matters. Originally bound into a letterbook, but disbound for preservation purposes, many of the letters are addressed to Amos A. Lawrence, founder of the NEEAC and one of John Brown’s “Secret Six.” The correspondents include significant antislavery figures such as Gerrit Smith (who curtly declines), Charles Robinson, Sarah Pellett, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

Consisting primarily of correspondence from four members of the Lyman family — Benjamin Smith Lyman, his uncle Joseph (1812-1871), and his cousins Joseph (1851-1883) and Frank Lyman Sr.– the series offers an interesting view into the lives of upper middle class Massachusetts in the mid-nineteenth century. The letters touch on a variety of topics, from social and family life to personal finances, education and work life, European travel, the Civil War, and politics, with a particularly rich focus on the antislavery struggle and efforts to encourage Free State settlers in Kansas.

The bulk of the antislavery content is located in two places. First, Samuel F. Lyman’s letters to his brother Joseph are filled with rich discussion of politics during the early 1850s, the elections and Whig and Free Soil politics, the annexation of Cuba, the influence of the Fugitive Slave Act in dividing George Simmons’ flock in Springfield and driving him from the pulpit, and related issues of the day. In a typical letter (Aug. 7, 1851), Samuel writes about his comrade, David Lee Child:

“I think Child has sacrificed enough to the anti slavery cause, & being poor as Lazarus, I should unwilling to ask him to contribute gratis any thing more. But aside from such considerations, I should hesitate about him as a regular, tho I should cordially welcome him as an occasional auxiliary. He is a perfect magazine of anti Slavery ammunition, an unmistakeable encyclopedia in regard to the history of the freedom party, our relations with Mexico, and the Texas villainy in its conception, inception, & consummation. I should esteem him invaluable as a visitor, or as an agent to look up & verify facts in regard to parties or movements of leading politicians & partizans…”

Second, there are nearly 800 pages of correspondence relating to the Kansas Land Trust which were originally bound into a letterbook kept by the Trust’s Treasurer, Joseph Lyman. Formed in 1856, the Land Trust was an investment arm of the New England Emigrant Aid Company that raised funds for the purchase of lands in the Delaware Indian Trust tract along the Missouri River for re-sale to Free State settlers. Driven both by antislavery sentiment and the promise of profit, the Trust helped settle the town of Quindaro, now absorbed within the limits of Kansas City, as a center for emigrants, but their operation proved to be short-lived. The financial panic of 1857 brought an effective end to its activities.

The Land Trust correspondence, all in-coming, spans nearly the entire history of the company and includes noted figures in the struggle such as Charles L. Robinson, Gerrit Smith, Sarah Pellett, Amos A. Lawrence, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. While much of the content relates to mundane matters such as advertising and inquiries about investment or emigration, there are occasional oddities as well — such as the letter and broadside from Charles W. Eldridge offering prefabricated wooden houses for sale, suitable for settlers in new western lands — and several letters that call out the underlying political and moral struggle. In a letter shortly after the Trust was formed (Oct. 29, 1856), Charles Hale writes about the realities of publicizing the antislavery aims of the endeavor:

“My object in writing to you at this early moment is to suggest whether it will not be best to strive to keep notice of your operations as much as possible out of all our papers. I have acted on this principle hitherto & refrained purposely from mentioning the election of the Trustees. You see whatever is in our papers is immediately caught up & reprinted in Missouri & at the south…”

Samuel C. Smith (July 23, 1857) writes from Quindaro to describes the impact of the mass emigration on the region:

“We are confident from what we can gather those [census returns] received that there must be a population of 65000 exclusive of Indians. There are 350 or more colored person returned — the most of whom are slaves. In most of the districts the marshals in taking the census, also, recorded the politics of the voters. We learn from this, that the Free State population in those districts where the pro-slavery element was considered strong — outnumbers them by more than seven to one… Our Free State party is now united and harmonious — never more so. The late convention was the longest ever held in Kansas. One voice — one desire — seemed to animate the delegates. Our prospects never were so bright and we never felt so strong as now.

Lyman provided a name index to the letterbook, with each letter assigned a number sequentially as it arrived. Not every number, however, is represented by a letter, suggesting either that some letters were never retained (or were retained elsewhere) or were separated from the letterbook prior to donation.

The series also includes three diaries of Benjamin Smith Lyman’s. Two of these, labeled “Cross section book,” record his daily routines, while the third is a diary that includes to-do lists, accounting information, detailed daily happenings, and thoughts. Although no year is specified in either volume 280 or 292, Lyman’s diary 278 (in the Benjamin Smith Lyman Papers) is recorded as 1908, while volume 292 contains a reference to his cookbook, which was published in 1917. Also included in the collection is a diary kept by the younger Joseph Lyman (1851-1883), dated 1859, documenting a tour of Europe. Each day, Lyman noted his location and noteworthy events and encounters.

The photographs depict three generations of the Lyman family, centering on Edward Hutchinson Robbins Lyman (1819-1899), his wives, children, and grandchildren. Although mostly portraits, the images reflect the family’s elevated social standing and close family bonds. Among the more notable images are a handsome early view of the First Congregational Church in Northampton, three images of the Harvard dorm rooms of Joseph (1873) and Frank (1874) Lyman, a large number of charming turn-of-the-century images of infants and their mothers, and a handsome amateur watercolor painting of the Lyman family pet parrot. The parrot is not named. The collection also includes a handful of images from earlier generations of the Lyman family (mostly photographs of painted portraits) and a small number of images from the family of Samuel Fowler Lyman, father of Benjamin Smith Lyman.

The series is noteworthy for containing a number of striking images taken by the photographer Katherine E. McClellan in the period 1905-1915. An 1882 graduate of Smith College, McClellan returned to Northampton in 1903, becoming the “official” photographer for her alma mater until her retirement in 1918. The beautifully-composed portraits of hers in this collection are delicately toned silver prints displaying a notable Pictorialist influence. Upon retiring, McClellan sold her studio to her long-time collaborator, Eric Stahlberg, who is represented in this collection by a wonderful wedding album put together in 1945 for Hannah C. Lyman and her new husband Roland Blenner-Hassett.

Other significant collections for Benjamin Smith Lyman are housed at the American Philsophical Society (which also houses a large and valuable collection of the papers of Lyman’s uncle J. Peter Lesley) and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (MS 0388).